3/9

16:45 09Mar09 RTRS-Taiwan dollar off 1-wk closing high on stocks
* Taiwan dollar tracks regional currencies weaker
* Dealers expect currency to remain largely flat this week
* Weak export figures weigh on Taiwan dollar

TAIPEI, March 9 (Reuters) - The Taiwan dollar weakened on Monday to pull back from a one-week closing high in the previous session, as it tracked losses in regional currencies while weak corporate results weighed on the stock market.
The Taiwan dollar weakened slightly to close at T$34.815 to the U.S. dollar, compared with Friday's close of T$34.780.
Earlier in the session, the Taiwan dollar hit a two-week intraday high of T$34.627, its strongest level since Feb. 23.
Volume on the main Taipei Forex Inc exchange was thin at $536 million, lower than Friday's $837 million.
"With volumes so low, there wasn't a clear direction for the Taiwan dollar and all it could do today was to track currencies like the Singapore dollar and South Korean won," said a dealer in Taipei.
"The Taiwan dollar also reversed early gains to go weaker when it became apparent how weak the local stock market was going to be."
Weak export figures also weighed on the local currency, with exports in February falling 28.6 percent from a year earlier but easing from January's record plunge. [ID:nTP197076]
Dealers said they expect the Taiwan dollar to remain largely flat for this week, but noted it could weaken further if there is a surprise rate cut by the central bank in response to the export figures.
"The Taiwan dollar did recover at the end of last week, so we could see it remaining largely flat or losing a little of its value if nothing out of the ordinary occurs," said another dealer.
On the smaller Cosmos exchange , the Taiwan dollar closed at T$34.800, compared to Friday's close of T$34.749.
(Reporting by Kelvin Soh and Yvette Chen; Editing by Ken Wills)
((kelvin.soh@thomsonreuters.com; +886 2 2508 0815; Reuters Messaging: kelvin.soh.reuters.com@reuters.com))
Keywords: MARKETS TAIWAN CURRENCY/


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Monday, 09 March 2009 16:45:55RTRS [nTP255844] {EN}ENDS